It's Like The Stars Are Against Us
by xXxAngelDestined2FallxXx
Summary: Just weeks before Bella and Edward's wedding, everything seems to be going perfectly, more perfect than they could ever imagine. Then tragedy strikes. It turns out that Bella has a rare strain of cancer that may not respond to treatment and is rushed to hospital after a lung collapses. Will this force them to call of the wedding? And, more importantly, will Bella survive?
1. Chapter 1

Bella's POV

I sighed as I stretched out on my bed. The weekend had finally begun. I felt around the bed for Edward to myself when I felt his fingers tangle through my own.

"Good morning, love," he sighed. I felt his cool lips on the back of my hand.

I sat up on the bed and looked at him. "I'm so glad you're here."

His brow furrowed. Ever since returning from Italy, he was afraid to leave, and I was always so pleased to find that he hadn't. I wasn't meaning it in that way though; I meant that I was glad in general. It was tough explaining, and he never believed that I would fully trust him now. So I just smiled and leaned in for a light peck on the cheek.

I felt him smile as my lips touched his smooth granite face. "Of course," he whispered.

"So," I started, stretching up and falling into his chest. "What do you wanna do today?"

He played with my hand and hummed to himself for a bit. "Anything. It's up to you." He paused for a moment and I could feel his eyes on my left hand. He turned it around slowly before squeezing it. "Where is your ring?"

I groan. "You know I can't wear it when Charlie's around. At least, not before we break the news to him."

I feel his chin on my head. "I know that, Bella. While we're on the topic, when were you planning on telling him of our upcoming nuptials?"

"Don't rush me, Edward," I moan. "I will, I promise. Soon. I just . . . I wish this time could last forever. Having this to ourselves is . . . nice."

"I know what you mean," he chuckles.

Eventually, we knew that we couldn't stay in this blissful bubble that happened first thing in the morning. I decided to go brush my teeth at least, anxious to kiss Edward good morning, but worried I might have morning breath. I didn't wanna take the chance. I reluctantly lift myself off his chest and push myself to the edge of the bed.

I feel something pulling in my chest and clutch it, rubbing the skin there. It was a dull ache, not painful, but not comfortable.

"Is everything okay, Bella?" I feel a cold hand on my back and turn. Edward is still lying on the bed but leaning towards me, with a slightly concerned expression on his face.

"Yeah," I say quickly. "My chest is just a bit sore."

"Would you like me to take you to Carlisle?"

God, Edward was prone to overreactions. I roll my eyes. "I'm sure it's just indigestion or something." I turn more to smirk at him. "Or maybe that's just the effect you have on my heart."

He arches an eyebrow and chuckles. "Kidding aside, are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine, Edward! I'll be fine! I'm just going to take something to ease the burning and I'll be up and running in no time." I cough a little, not helping my case. As I cough, I feel my throat constricting. "I might be coming down with something. Let me just go take a shower. I'll be right back."

I hop up off the bed and go into the bathroom. I don't look at myself as I undress and get under the hot water. I'm not sure how long I stand there, just letting the hot water run down my back and make me shiver with pleasure. I hear plates banging on the counter downstairs and I know Charlie isn't home, so Edward must be cooking me breakfast. I take another moment just to appreciate him and the fact that I don't deserve him, not at all. The universe must have a debt to pay to me from one of my past lives or something to give me someone like Edward.

The pain in my chest subsides as it's replaced with deeper thoughts. Thoughts of my wedding. Alice would not let this weekend pass without some sort of planning being done. I wondered what torture it would be this time. I groaned and that caused me to cough more. That set me off. It felt like something was lodged in my throat. The force made me bent over and hold my knees as I hacked onto the shower floor. The position was awkward and the pain grew. The coughing wasn't stopping and I eventually threw up my dinner. I watched the yellow muck dissolves with the soap bubbles and slide down the drain. I was queasy just seeing it.

I freeze, waiting for the next load. Once I'm sure there will be no more vomit, I stand and rinse myself quickly, before turning off the water and stepping out into the cold bathroom. I grab a towel from behind the door and catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I gasp and freeze in place, momentarily forgetting the cold and the pain and the coughing. There's a huge welt on my rib cage. The right one is normal and pasty white as usual. The left one has a purple and red patch. It looks painful, yet I couldn't even feel it. I gingerly lay a finger on it. It's a bruise. I watch as it turns white for a short second, then back to red. I shake my head and grab the towel, anxious to see Edward, to go to Carlisle.

I race to my bedroom where more coughing erupts from my chest. This time, I feel the pain.

"Bella? Are you alright?" Edward calls from the bottom of the staircase.

"I'm . . . fine!" I cough out. "Don't come up, I'm not decent!"

I pull myself up until I'm standing straight and start digging around for clothes, anything to just throw on and wear until I make it to Carlisle. The coughing becomes more like retching and I throw up once more, this time on the bedroom floor. I pull myself back up, forgetting the clothes and wrapping the towel tightly around my body, before stumbling to the top of the staircase. I feel myself slip over my own feet and hold my hand out to grab the banister, but I miss and tumble down each step, banging my head and ribs so painfully I cry out.

I barely notice when Edward throws me into his arms and carries me to his car. I barely notice the time it takes for his car to get to the hospital. All I know is pain. I black out at some point, so deeply into the darkness that not even the sound of Edward's voice brings me back. Only the beeping of a heart monitor and the feeling of a needle through my arm manage to get me conscience for a second. But even that doesn't keep me. All I can do is suffer in silence, and wait for what I figured to be my death to come.

I knew the universe wasn't going to let us off the hook that easily.


	2. Chapter 2

Charlie's POV

As soon as I got the call from Edward, I was on my way to the hospital. I got there in five minutes and made a beeline for the room I was told she was in. I was so worried, I didn't even question Edward on how he'd found my daughter on the floor in my house this morning. Or why he called on her phone. Or how he knew what had happened. None of that was important. At that point, all that was important was how grateful I was that he had found her, no matter what the circumstances.

I saw Carlisle in the hallway on my way to Bella's room and stopped him in desperation. While it wasn't unusual for Bella to be in the emergency room what with her clumsiness and lack of caution, this sounded a lot more serious when Edward spoke to me over the phone.

"Where is she?" I ask quickly, grabbing his coat.

He moves my hand and starts walking. "Follow me."

He takes me into an ICU room, where he leads me to the only bed. Bella was strapped to countless machines and IVs and tubes, looking out of it and near death with bags under her eyes. She didn't appear to be breathing and she had a tube coming out of her side. The only thing reassuring me that she was alive was the constant beep of her heart monitor. I focused on that beep, knowing that as long as I could hear it, everything would be fine.

It took a second for me to notice Edward next to the bed, a shadowy figure with darker circles than Bella had under his own eyes, looking drained and worried shitless. I took this to mean I should be too. I wonder what he knew that made him look that way. The same news I was about to hear.

"Is she . . . is she okay?" I ask Carlisle.

He moves to one of Bella's IVs and adjusts the speed the liquid was dripping. "She's stable. She was seizing when Edward brought her in. It appears one of her lungs had collapsed."

I blanched at his nonchalant tone of voice. I knew he had to be calm no matter what since he was the doctor and was supposed to reassure people . . . but this was also his son's girlfriend. Nothing about his voice or facial expression gave away how I was supposed to take this news.

"What do you mean?" I ask, confused and somewhat afraid.

He sighs. "It looks like a tumour had started forming a while ago. We ran some tests and are currently waiting for those results. Only then can we determine if the tumour is malignant. But at the rate it's spreading . . . I'm afraid there's a good chance it's a form of cancer. It was strong enough to collapse her left lung and left her unable to breathe. That's why she was seizing."

"Will she be okay?" I ask again, unable to form a coherent thought about any of this. All I had to establish now was whether or not she would be okay, the rest I could deal with later, as long as she was okay.

"Like I said, she's stable for now." He sighs. "If my worst fears are confirmed and it is cancer, then laser treatment won't work. I will have to operate and remove the tumour manually through surgery before taking some scans and then determining the best form of treatment."

"What can I do?" I asked, grabbing Bella's limp hand and squeezing.

"I'm going to tell you what I told Edward," he said, placing a hand on my shoulder. "All we can do at this point is hope and pray for the best. Bella won't be up for a very long time, Charlie. If you leave, I will make sure to call as soon as she wakes or as soon as we hear anything."

I nod stiffly and wait for him to leave before turning to a very distraught looking Edward, clutching onto Bella's hand for dear life. As though if he let go he would lose her.

"How did you know?" I had to ask.

He didn't look away from Bella's face as he spoke. "She was talking to me on the phone and I heard her coughing. Then something, I assume it was her, fell down and cracked something on the ground. I got worried and drove to your house. I found her like this on the floor."

I clench my jaw. "How long has she been out?"

"The fits stopped about twenty minutes ago," he told me, still not daring to look away from her face. "But she's been incoherent for at least an hour."

"I only checked my voicemails now," I say guiltily.

"There's nothing you could have done even if you'd come sooner." He sighs and I notice he's rubbing Bella's hand. "I wish there was something I could do."

It was the first time I actually heard for myself Edward express his emotions towards my daughter. There was so much feeling behind that one sentence that I had to look away.

"They need me back at the station . . . but I'm not sure I can leave here . . ." I stand in hesitation and reluctance, not sitting but not moving.

"Go, Charlie," Edward rasps out. "I'll call you as soon as I hear something."

Edward's POV

I watch as he leaves the room, leaving me and Bella alone for the first time in this ordeal. I let out a guttural moan, something that might resemble a cry if I were human. How could I let this happen? I was right downstairs. How could I not have known she was in distress? Was I that detached?

I didn't deserve her. The whole time I had known her, having a doctor for a 'father' and having two medical degrees myself, how could I not have known she had cancer growing inside her? If I had known, I could have helped her a long time ago. Carlisle assured me it was impossible to spot unless you actually have a cat scan done or something like this happens.

I squeezed her hand and lifted it to my lips to kiss it gently. Carlisle would help her. He was the best. He would save her. I would make him save her. No matter what it takes. I would make sure my Bella woke up. With or without a beating heart.


	3. Chapter 3

Carlisle's POV

I walk into the room and see Edward in the same position I left him in twelve hours earlier.

"Why don't you go home, Edward?" I say. "Alice doesn't see Bella waking up any time before morning."

He responds with a look that clearly stated he was going nowhere without Bella. I sigh and look through the file that had just been given to me. It was a big file, Bella's but I had no trouble finding the page I was looking for.

"Edward, son . . ." I hear the roar erupt through the room before I can get the words out. He read my thoughts and stood up swiftly, and after punching an unexplainable hole into the concrete wall, strode as fast as he could at human pace out of the room, leaving Bella for the first time since arrival. "The cancer is malignant," I whisper to myself, finishing my sentence even though I could only say it to the unconscious girl before me.

I was upset, shocked and, above all, afraid. For my son, for my future daughter-in-law. I was even more afraid that it might be too late to help her. I furrowed my brow and stopped the tranquilizer IV. The sooner she woke up the sooner I could help her, talk to her and find out how she felt. I couldn't start her on medication without her knowledge and consent. Some patients reject treatment completely and prefer to have it over sooner than later. I shuddered at the possibility Bella might be one of those people. Not that I believed Edward would ever give her the choice. He would want to do anything at all to save her. I didn't want to think about what that meant just yet.

Bella's POV

I fluttered my eyelashes as I felt myself come to, the haze that had been keeping me under was wearing off and I didn't like that. I wanted to be asleep. I didn't want the pain. The pain wasn't present though, the sharp sting had been reduced to a dull ache in my side, something that was easier to deal with. I gave up on sleep and opened my eyes. Edward wasn't in the room. But a new face had taken his place. Alice was smiling timidly and holding my hand. I looked up and saw Carlisle adjusting something above me, before pulling back and smiling at me warmly.

"How do you feel, Bella?" he asks gently.

"Better," I rasp groggily, still half asleep. "Where's Edward."

"He went to get you something to eat," Alice chirped in quickly. "He'll be back soon."

I try to shift my position to sit upright, but as I move something cuts through my left side and I gasp, falling back down in pain.

"Be careful, Bella," Carlisle warns, placing a cold hand on my chest to softly push me back down fully. "Your lung is completely ruptured."

"What?" I ask, blinking away the tears that came from my movement. "How the hell did that happen?"

He sighs and shares a look with Alice that makes me think I was about to be told something I would prefer not to know. As I wait for someone to answer my question, I look up at the three IVs next to me and read the labels. I start when I see one labelled 'CHEMO' and my head snaps back to Carlisle.

"Why am I on chemotherapy, Carlisle?" He and Alice share another long look. "Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?!"

Alice squeezes my hand as Carlisle sits on the bed next to me. "Bella, scans have detected a malignant cancer spreading through your chest cavity, based in your lungs. It made its way to your thyroid and throat, that's where we detected it. I was going to wait for you to be fully awake before setting it up, but chemo was the only thing keeping the tumours from moving. You're stabilized for the moment, but we have to take action."

I find it hard processing all the information, but when it finally sinks in, it's as though Alice's icy grip on my hand is the only thing keeping me from sinking through the floor.

"What action? Carlisle, I want Edward." My voice is hollow with fear. "Where's Charlie? Does he know?"

"Bella, calm down. This doesn't mean anything. The chemo has just been started and I'm hopeful that it will have a good effect. I won't lie to you, though; it is too soon to really tell how it will affect you. What I really need from you, since you are now eighteen, is your signature on this form." He hands it to me. "It will give me permission to operate on your lungs to remove the tumour on your left side. Right now this tube," he pulls on the thin tube coming out of my nostrils and connected to a tank, "is the only thing effectively keeping you breathing. I need your signature urgently, Bella. The sooner you sign the sooner I can operate."

I am beside myself at this point and I feel panic set in.

"Bella, shhh, it's going to be okay," Alice coos from beside me.

I shake my head and feel the tears running down my cheek before I realise I'm crying. "I want Edward. Where is he? I'm not signing anything without him. Edward!" I shout, somehow believing he would hear me. "EDWARD!"

Alice stands. "I'll go get him, Bella, please calm down. All this shouting is no good for your lungs."

I bite my lip and wait anxiously. My breathing becomes desperate and I resort to holding my breath. I finally see Alice and Edward emerge through the double door and release my breath slowly.

"I'm right here, Bella, love," he says kneeling beside my bed and grasping my hand. "I'm not going anywhere."

Carlisle clears his throat and Edward reluctantly turns to look at him. They stare at one another for an impossibly long minute before Edward nods a tiny nod and reaches across my chest for the contract.

"Bella, sweetheart, I need you to sign this for me. I promise nothing will happen to you; I would never let anything happen. Neither would Carlisle."

I groan. "Is it too much to ask that you speak out loud while I'm around. I would like to know what's going to happen to me!"

"Nothing is going to happen, Bella," Alice said.

At least Alice was here. I knew she wouldn't lie to me just to soothe me or calm me down like Edward would.

I look at the contract that Edward was holding out before me and grab the pen, signing my name at the bottom of the page with some hesitation.

"Am I going to die?" I whisper slowly to Edward.

His eyes widen and then harden with resolution. "No. Certainly not, Bella. How could you even think that? I won't let that happen."

I nod, reassured for the moment. It was going to be okay. I was going to be fine. Carlisle promised. Edward promised. Alice promised. I was going to be okay.

"Bella," Carlisle interrupts my thoughts. "I need to take you into surgery now, okay? Don't worry, Edward isn't going anywhere."

"Alice?" I whimper pathetically, gazing up at her.

"I'm not leaving either, Bella." She pats my foot and I sigh.

"Okay," I nod to Carlisle.

He calls in a nurse. Edward picks me up easily and lowers me onto a gurney that Carlisle begins to wheel out. I remember him adjusting something on my IVs and I got sleepy again. I let the dark take me, and it did. Into happier thoughts and dreams of Edward. Somehow, I knew the blissful ease couldn't last forever. Everything was changing. I could feel it. It was more than the ache in my chest or the pain of knowing I had cancer. This feeling of change was coming from my heart. Nothing lasted forever. And it seemed that this life was willing to take everything I had before I could finally be at peace.


End file.
